On Friday, I took these shots on the corner of Fourth and Franklin.
I found this second image interesting, and worked up some variations on it that I will bring back in another post.
Images of Downtown Waco
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Category Archives: Events
Waco’s Freedom Fountain
After the Texas Ranger Hall, I went down to the Freedom Fountain.
Texas Ranger Hall and Museum
One of the most popular spots in Waco is the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. 
Wisdom exists for a purpose
There are times when one should heed common wisdom. I almost always shoot using Aperture Priority. I think most serious photographers do as it allows you to determine the depth of focus. That having been said, most sports photographers would argue that shooting in Shutter Priority is better for sports. It allows you to choose a shutter speed appropriate to freezing the action of your subject.
Saturday we went up to Denton to watch Mathias play football. This season, he is splitting time between his established position as corner back and his new position as running back. Saturday, he played a significant part of the second half at running back. He had a couple good, long runs and even scored a touchdown. Of course, I had my cameras and shot the game.
I began in Aperture Priority and selected f/8. It was a bright sunny day, and that allowed me to get good depth of field at a reasonable shutter speed. I had the 70 – 200 lens on my a550 and the 500 on my a700. Somehow at halftime, without my being aware of it, the aperture on my a700 got changed from f/8 to f/22. As a result, almost every pic had motion blur because I was now shooting at a shutter speed of 1/50 sec. Here is an example:
This is one of the better ones. I should have paid closer attention, but I didn’t. I should have shot using Shutter Priority, but I didn’t.
Cozumel
The third stop on our cruise was Cozumel. We have been there several times before, making it easier to just head out on our own. We took a cab into town and shopped, stopped at Palmeres and had a margarita, then stopped at Margaritaville for lunch before going back tot he ship. The port area is much more built up than the last time we were there.
Another shot of a boat, this one not as stylized as the one from Belize. This was taken in downtown San Miguel.
Altun Ha Ruins and Belize
Our second stop was Belize, and we took a tour to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. It was unbelievably hot, and the “guide” (as typical) went on and on and on about trivial details. There were about 40 people in our tour and two other groups besides us. So, getting reasonable pictures without lots of people was a problem. However, by using photoshop, I was able to produce some pretty good images.
On the road, as we drove along the shore, I noticed there was an old boat leaning against a tree. So, I took a quick picture of it as we passed by. With the use of a variety of NIK effects, it turned out to be a pretty good image.
Roatan Honduras
The first stop on our cruise was the island of Roatan. We took a tour to the Carambola Botanical Gardens. It was an absolutely terrible day. It was raining and humid. I wanted to get some good flower pictures, but it was almost impossible. I did get a really good shot of an orchid.
Following that, our bus toured the west side of the island, stopping in a small village. From there, we went to a resort area. I got this picture at the resort. It took some manipulation to better balance the details and the contrast, but it was worth it.
Cruise 2013 – Galveston before we left
We went on a cruise a couple weeks ago. Prior to departing, you sit on the boat and wait. While waiting, I did get a couple of interesting shots. Then, when we did sail away, I was able to get a couple more really good ones.
This is another HDR shot. I shot it from the deck of the ship and did my best to get a straight shot along 25th St. The deck I was on ended a little short of where I really wanted to be, but this worked pretty well. You can see from the harbor all the way to the Pleasure Pier.
As we were sailing away, I was able to get this HDR image of The Elissa.
Galveston Historic Houses
Galveston has a huge number of large historic houses. I have wanted to get HDR images of many of them to add to my Galveston images. A few months ago, I got some of the Bishop’s Palace and a house across from it on Broadway, but didn’t have time to get more of other places. I started today with the ones that the Galveston Historic Foundation lists on their web site.
This was the Samuel May Williams house.
This was the Michael B. Menard House. Note the bird on the porch. Those looked like herons. They were walking around the front lawn. I don’t know if they were in some way domesticated, but they didn’t seem very concerned with me taking pictures.
This was Ashton Villa.
This was Moody Mansion.
Fourth of July Parade
I enjoy “event” photography. It is a way of taking candid pictures of people. The expressions on their faces are spontaneous and relevant to the moment. Last night was the Fourth of July Parade in Galveston. The parade was on Seawall. It started at 59th St. and went in to 25th. We walked down to about 57th and got a good spot on the curb. Once the parade started it was a general melee and people crowded into the street, mainly because most of those marching in the parade were throwing beads or candy. In spite of the crowd, I was able to get some good shots of the people in the parade.
This was a little boy who was “dancing” to the music provided prior to the parade.
The expression of concentration on this woman’s face was great.
This woman was on the Yaga’s float. She had a variety of small stuffed animals, and she would reach out with one and shake it back and forth. she would then toss it to one of the children.
I Pirate relegated to driving a golf cart in a parade.